Max Steinberg’s family travels to Israel to bury him

Dozens of votive candles are placed at a vigil for Max Steinberg, an Israel Defense Force soldier and Woodland Hills native killed in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, at Lazy J. Ranch Park in West Hills on Sunday night.

WEST HILLS >> Stuart Steinberg knew something was terribly wrong when staff members of the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles came knocking on the door of his Encino home at about 8 a.m. Sunday.

Steinberg’s American son Max Steinberg, who grew up in Woodland Hills, had been living in Israel since September 2012 and was a volunteer soldier for the Israel Defense Forces highly decorated Golani Brigade. Its members had been fighting a ground offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, part of a military operation Israel said it launched two weeks ago to quell a barrage of rocket fire and destroy tunnels used by infiltrating militants.

When he saw his visitors Sunday morning, Steinberg’s fleeting hopes that his son might have escaped death were soon dashed. Max Steinberg, a 2008 El Camino Real High School graduate, had become another casualty in the latest round of Israel-Palestinian violence that has claimed the lives of more than 540 Palestinians, including many civilians, and at least 27 Israelis, mostly soldiers, in the last two weeks.

“He was serving the country that he believed was part of who he was,” Stuart Steinberg said at a vigil at Lazy J. Ranch Park on Sunday night. “We look at it as a Jewish state, and he felt he was part of what needed to be done during these times.”

A couple hundred friends, family and community members gathered under the night sky Sunday to mourn and remember the 24-year-old man for his lively and spontaneous spirit. Visitors offered their support and condolences to family and friends near a makeshift memorial that included dozens of votive candles, a few Israeli flags and a fresh bouquet of flowers.

Max Steinberg had participated in a 10-day birthright trip to Israel with his brother Jake and sister Paige in June 2012 and had such a positive experience that he returned a few months later to live there indefinitely, the elder Steinberg said. He had no relatives in Israel and signed up for the Israeli army, his father said, in case he one day decided to make Israel his permanent home.

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When Max became a volunteer in the IDF, he intentionally pursued being a Golani, the soldiers on the front lines of battle, Steinberg said. When he was initially told his Hebrew was not good enough to qualify, he took time off to immerse himself in the language because he couldn’t imagine doing anything else in the IDF, friends said.

“The guys that are willing to go down that road have made some kind of personal choice,” Steinberg said. “The consequences were horrible. Not in our wildest imagination did we expect this was going to be our experience, but it’s the price of war.”

Fred Pesin, 24, of Woodland Hills, who helped organize the vigil, described Steinberg, who enjoyed being outdoors, playing bass and eating junk food, as a brother and his best friend.

“His whole life story, how this turned out, him becoming a hero — he deserves to be remembered,” Pesin said. “He loved so many people, and he gave away so much love.”